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“I know,” he mutters

“Can we outrun it?”

“We can try”

“The stairs are free,” Shar If we are to flee, we must do so now”

“What are aiting for?” Kirilli yells He hasn’t ed stuers used to be

“You think we can fight it?” Dervish asks, stepping up beside Beranabus

“I don’t know”

TheJuni escaped through blinks out of existence That see away from the door, back towards the lodestone “Maybe it’s not as powerful as it thinks”

He unleashes a ball of bright blue ic at the Shadow The ball strikes the creature directly and crackles around it Its tendrils thrash wildly, then return to their al of the lodestone Its body continues to throb A high piercing sound fills the hold—I think the Shadow’s laughing at us

Sharmila bends, touches the invisible barrier where the floor should be and creates a pillar of fire It streaks towards the lodestone, slicing through several zombies on the way When it reaches the Shadow, Shar a curtain of fla like a spider’s legs shrivelling up But when the flaes unharmed, oozes over the lodestone and slides towards us

Dervish leaps through the air and chops at a thick tendril He cuts clean through it, severing the tip The a away to ash

The Shadow catches Dervish with another tentacle, roughly shakes his hiht and the spiky-haired ician, gasping with pain, his skin burnt a bright pink where the tendril touched him

“Stuff this!” Kirilli pants, and darts up the stairs I let hiht if he doesn’t want to Besides, I doubt he could make much of a difference

About a dozen walking corpses converge on h them as they age the Shadow, and swiftly cool his burnt flesh

“Are you OK?” I ask as he sits up, dazed